Shan Tsutsui (left) and David Ige (right)
Does money matter?
Democrat David Ige just beat Gov Neil Abercrombie
66% to 31% even though Abercrombie outspent him by a
9 to 1 margin. Aug 9 Campaign spending reports show that Ige has only a little over
$94,000 cash on hand.
Republican gubanatorial candidate Duke Aiona has $198,000 and former DINO and current third party candidate Mufi Hannemann has almost $175,000.
It is one thing to go up against a deeply unpopular figure like Neil Abercrombie whose intemperate remarks have insulted pretty much every sector of his base, but it is quite another to face a well-funded Republican with a "nice guy" reputation like Duke Aiona. Ige recognizes this:
"I still trust the people of Hawaii to not allow this campaign to be bought,” Ige told Hawaii News Now Friday. “But we are working on fundraising. We do know that it's a different ball game. That we are not running against a candidate that has poor job approval ratings."
International Transformation Network and the kill-the-gays law
Aiona's nice guy demeanor covers up some of the ugliest religious positions we've seen in a viable Hawai'i candidate. But
polls conducted prior to the primary showed Aiona beating Ige or both tied. (Caveat: Hawai'i polls are notoriously inaccurate.)
Aiona has a long relationship with the kill-the-gays International Transformation Network (ITN). In 2010 when Mufi Hannemann was running for governor as a Democrat, ITN leader Ed Silvoso declared:
"It doesn't matter if the Republican [Aiona] or the Democratic candidate [Hannemann] wins the governorship. Either one is already in the kingdom."
Opponents are anti-gay and anti-choice
Both Mufi Hannemann and Aiona share the same religiously inspired horror of gays and women who seek to control their reproduction. In fact Hannemann implies that
abortion can be banned at the state level.
"any attempt to overturn [Roe vs Wade] should come from the states"
In the four years after this statement was made we see how prescient Hannemann was. The Republicans have closed clinic after clinic by instituting draconian and unnecessary restrictions on them - called the "
incremental strategy"
Ige's background
Democrat Ige has been an electrical engineer for 34 years and in the Hawai'i State legislature for 20 years, serving as the state senate chair of the powerful Ways and Means committee. The combination of engineering and financial know-how serves him well as Hawai'i attempts to move its major utility (HECO) to allowing more rooftop PV. Hawaii residents pay the highest electric rates in the country.
The Sierra Club has been endorsing Shan Tsutsui for each of his runs in the state legislature and has endorsed both Ige and Tsutui in this election.
Tsutsui, too, served in the state senate as its president and became Lt. Governor upon Brian Schatz's appointment to the U.S. senate.
Is Hawai'i going to become a theocracy?
Could Hawai'i go Republican - and not just Republican but radical anti-gay, anti-choice Republican? Aiona is already running "nice guy" TV commercials (that avoid the issue of his stance against corporate regulation, gays and choice.) Unless we get more funds to Ige, Hawaii's political future is looking uncertain.
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